Photos for the Memories
by Tonkswyrda
Summary: Tonks finds a stack of old photo albums, and looks back on the life of Remus Lupin.


Old Polaroid photographs. Musty, frail pages.

They littered the attic, stacked high in boxes, or tilting dangerously on top of one another. Where all these photo albums had come from, Tonks really wasn't sure. Softly, she put a box of her own near the door, and stepped into the room. Dust rose in small clouds with every step.

"Remus?" she called. "Are all these albums yours?"

"No," came the muffled reply from down the hall. "They're my whole family's. There should be a box of Sirius', and James and Lily's too…" his voice trailed off.

Tonks looked around at the teetering stacks, inspecting the old books, until she found a box with 'Remus John Lupin' scribbled across it. Looking down the hall to check that he wasn't coming, she quickly pulled the box down, coughing as she disrupted even more dust. Sitting on an old moth eaten cushion, she opened it and pulled out the first book.

There was a small photo of a family. Remus slept, a tiny pink baby in his new parents' arms. It was captioned April 10, 1960. The day he was born. They all looked so happy, so… peaceful. Tonks smiled. There had been a time when he wasn't haunted by the thought of what he was, what he had become. Even though his father was dead now, and his mother wanted nothing to do with him, it was nice to see that they had been happy at one point in his life.

The rest of the album was filled with pages and pages of photos of him growing up. Playing on swings, riding a tricycle, eating, finger painting, on holiday with his parents. Cheeky smiles shaded by huge sunhats and covered, quite often, with food. Tonks couldn't help but laugh at those. The whole album stopped before he even reached primary school.

The first few pages of the next album had had all the photos ripped out. Tonks frowned. Why would someone have done that? Maybe they had just fallen out? She checked the box, just in case. Bent and torn under the other few albums were the remains of photos that had been taken in a hospital. In one she could see Remus lying in a huge hospital bed, fast asleep, bandages wound up his arm.

He had to grow up so fast after that. After he had been bitten, infected, alienated from the rest of the world. And he was only five years old.

Tonks hadn't realised she'd been crying until a tear fell on the photo.

Freaking werewolves.

Angrily wiping away her tears, she turned to pages that had photos in them. A small smile spread across her face. There he was, looking so proud, hugging his dad in front of the Hogwarts express. The first moving picture of his first day at Hogwarts. And there were ones he had taken at school with his new found friends; first ones of Lily, then of Sirius and James, then ones of Peter and other boys in their year she didn't know. She pulled out a photo of all of them sitting in their new common room, without a care in the world-well Remus looked slightly worried, but that was to be expected, she supposed. God knows he would have been nervous.

She laughed out loud as she turned the page. James and Sirius were walking behind Remus, who was determinedly looking away (although there was a slight grin on his face, which had new scars on it now she could see) while the pulled monster faces behind his back, with wide eyes and hands spread like claws. The next one was best though- Remus had casually sent his elbow back, colliding with Sirius' nose. Tonks was almost glad she hadn't been at school with them, if this was what they got up too. Even though she was sure she had photos of her and her friends doing the exact same thing to Charlie Weasley…

There were too many pages of the four of them. And a few too many of Remus and

Sirius for her liking… she knew about that though. It was a long time ago.

Tonks couldn't help smirking when she found photos of Remus and Sirius babysitting her when she was about five. They looked extremely harassed, as she ran up behind them, pushing them over; putting toy trucks beneath their feet and watching them skid and scream down the hall. The photo was shaking too- whoever had been holding the camera (probably James) had been having a good laugh.

The school photos stopped halfway through the next album, and suddenly, everything was so much more serious. She knew why of course- Remus had joined the order, along with his friends. There were a couple photos of them all striking poses with matching black t-shirts emblazoned with a golden phoenix, and a couple pages of James and Lily's wedding, and then with harry. He was a cute baby too, although a bit pudgier then Remus had been. She grinned at that thought.

The photos stopped after that. Newspaper clippings had been roughly shoved in like bookmarks. Gently pulling one out, Tonks realised why- they were from the first of November, 1981. The day after James and Lily had been murdered. The text was slightly blurred in places, by what she could only guess were tears.

The next clipping had been roughly ripped from the newspaper, and looked like it had been screwed up and almost thrown out before being shoved, bent and tattered into the album. A large picture of Sirius told Tonks all she needed to know about that article- obviously about him killing Peter and half a street of Muggles, along with betraying James and Lily to Voldemort. Remus must have been heartbroken. He lost everyone he had cared for in the course of a week. Silently, she put the clipping away. There were no more photo albums- but a brown envelope sat at the bottom of the box. Curious, she opened it.

"What are you doing in here?"

Tonks dropped the envelope. "Crap, you nearly gave me a heart attack! Geez!

Umm…" she tried to think up a decent excuse. Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Looking through my photos?" he glanced at the stack of books beside her.

"…yeah." Tonks gave in.

Smiling, Remus gave her a small push, sitting down next to her. "Did you think I didn't want you to?"

"Well… maybe."

Remus snorted, shaking his head. "Here." He picked up the envelope, pulling out a new stack of photos. "It's us."

Tonks smiled softly, rubbing her fingers over a photo of her asleep in his lap while he played with her hair- Sirius had taken it at one of his last order meetings, she remembered. Remus rested his chin on her shoulder.

"I love you." He whispered.

She kissed him. "Love you too."

He had had one hell of a life, that was for sure. But she loved him all the more for it.

***

Teddy Lupin opened the old, creaky attic door, watching the dust rise as fresh air entered the room. His grandma didn't like him to go in here, but when she was out, this was where he spent his time. Pulling a throw rug over a moth eaten cushion, he sat down, pulling a pile of photo albums with him. Taking a deep breath, he turned to the back of the top one, and stared at the newspaper cutting.

The obituaries. And the ninth name on the long list from May second, 1998 was Remus Lupin.

His father.

He had died defending Hogwarts, Harry always told him. He had died to make this world a better place for his son, for Teddy, to live in. he had died so that Teddy wouldn't be ridiculed for being part werewolf all his life.

And Teddy was proud of him.

Slowly, he turned to the first page of his father's life, a life he wished he had been a bigger part of, and a life he would always treasure and remember.


End file.
